and they know when they buy patterns from us, they're helping support us. >> reporter: supporting small businesses is also good for the overall economy. over 99% of businesses in the u.s. are small businesses and they employ about half the nation's workforce. >> small businesses are critical to the economy. if you go back the last 20 years, they've created most of the new jobs in the u.s. economy. and we know that we are struggling with job creation. so shopping small is actually one way to build the confidence in growth of small businesses. which will only help produce more jobs in the future. >> reporter: for leisl and company, small business saturday provides a sales lift during an otherwise slow period. >> we're in kind of a unique industry. for most retailers, it's all about november and december. for us, november and december are actually our slowest months of the year. people don't want to take on new large craft projects just before the holiday. >> reporter: for other firms, the arrival of small business saturday is especially important this year, coming a month after superstorm